* Posts by Sora2566

225 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2022

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Google sues scammers peddling fake malware-riddled Bard chatbot download

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"The web giant also wants damages, including all the money made from the scam."

Google: Nobody makes money off the gullibility of our users but us!

Your online store down? Can't get to your fave web shop? Maybe blame Shopify

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Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2347/

Meta, YouTube face criminal spying complaints in Ireland

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I wish this guy the best of luck, but I don't think they've got a real chance... :(

FTC interrupts Copyright Office probe to flip out over potential AI fraud, abuse

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The law usually trails tech, but it looks like the law doesn't want to get too far behind this particular development...

Bad eIDAS: Europe ready to intercept, spy on your encrypted HTTPS connections

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Re: Never understood certs

Certificate Transparency is designed specifically to defeat this kind of attack. "Good thing" then that Article 45 forbids it then! (It's not one of the defenses mentioned as being allowed, and browsers aren't allowed to add any not on the list.)

Google mulled offering paid-for no-logging private Search subscription

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"How could we be seen as less creepy?"

"Well, we could *be* less creepy?"

"Nah that doesn't work for us, what else you got?"

Uncle Sam snooping on US folks? Not without a warrant, lawmakers agree

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Finding out that Biden opposes banning warrentless searches made me respect him just that little bit less.

I mean, I'm sure the other guy's even worse on this, but still.

US actors are still on strike – and yup, it's about those looming AI clones

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At what point did the argument shift from "No, you can't scan my face without my approval" to "No, you can't duplicate my face without my approval"?

YouTube cares less for your privacy than its revenues

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No, of course not.

But "did our ads load and show" which is the information they actually *want*, their check of "do you have an ad-blocker" is the wrong way to go about this - isn't that. And I'm worried that if YouTube takes off their Google hat for a minute and does this check without data-slurping, then the law will switch around to being on their side.

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The EU have a problem with YouTube's activities because of the privacy-invading nature of their "are you using ad-blockers" check, not because of the check itself. If they change their check to be privacy-preserving, I'm worried the law will switch around to being on their side.

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So, I think YouTube is doing a stupid here... *but*.

Blocking ads is legal - you're just choosing *not* to download something.

Blocking ad-blockers is also legal - you are allowed to make "View my ads" a condition of viewing the website, and try and enforce that.

Blocking ad-blocker-blockers is *not* legal, as you are now circumventing the "conditions of entry", as it were.

So I think that what YouTube is doing is user-hostile and they should definitely be using content-based advertising and massively ratcheting down the (download) size and interactivity of online ads as other people have said... but I'm worried that if they raise a stink about ad-blockers in a court somewhere, that they'll actually have a leg to stand on.

Beijing prepares for imminent rise of humanoid robots

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"Humanoid robots are touted to become the next disruptive thing after computers, smartphones and new energy vehicles"

Assuming they mean electric vehicles, have those actually disrupted anything? I thought the only thing they're a serious threat to would be a petrol station, and even then I'm assuming they'll pivot to being charging stations.

US officials close to persuading allies to not pay off ransomware crooks

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And so, cryto became tightly regulated and tightly monitored by the government, losing its two big selling points.

Alphabet CEO testifies in Google Search trial: We pay billions to keep Apple at bay

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"No we're not paying Apple to maintain our monopoly, we're paying them so that they don't make their own search engine and compete with us!"

"...thus, maintaining your monopoly?"

"Yes! No, um, wait...!"

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Intent matters in law - the government are trying to prove that Google's payments to Apple are with the intention of maintaining a monopoly.

Japan to probe Google over 'suspicion' that antitrust laws are being broken

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Here's hoping *somebody* stands up to Google before the sun burns out...

US government's Login.gov turns frown upside down, now smiles on facial recognition

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Oh for pity's sake... just use passkeys, and require user verification. You'll get more security with far better privacy outcomes.

Australia threatens X with fine, warns Google, for failure to comply with child abuse handling report regs

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-16/social-media-x-fined-over-gaps-in-child-abuse-prevention/102980590

Quoting directly from there:

The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, can now require online service providers to report on how they are meeting any or all of the expectations as part of the eSafety Act.

"This was about the worst kind of harm, child sexual exploitation as well as extortion, and we need to make sure that companies have trust and safety teams, they're using people processes and technologies to tackle this kind of content," she told ABC News Channel.

"Frankly, X did not provide us with the answers to very basic questions we'd ask them like, 'How many trust and safety people do you have left?'"

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Worth noting that one of the questions that Twitter/X refused to answer was "how many people do you have working on eSafety".

I suspect the answer is suspiciously close to "Zero".

SBF on trial: The Python code that allegedly let Alameda hedge fund spend people's FTX deposits

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Re: Sure, take $10B from customer accounts without their knowledge or consent

How about we put away the pitchforks and torches for now, and let the courts do their work? Being angry is fine, wishing violence on people isn't.

Forcing Apple to allow third-party app stores isn't enough

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Re: It's not whether the App Store is good or bad...

"What class of apps is Apple blocking that threatens them? I can't think of anything."

According to app store rules, anything that does something that an Apple device does already cannot be an app. Most famously, this means that web browsers cannot be installed via the app store, as they -gasp- might actually prove a superior experience to Safari, which comes installed with the device.

Yes, Chrome and Firefox have apps in the app store, but those aren't browsers - they're thin wrappers around Safari. There is no choice of browser on iOS - it's Safari or nothing. That's why Safari being underpowered is such a problem - another browser cannot just outcompete it, because it can't compete with it period. They've banned browser competition on iOS.

'Gay furry hackers' brag of second NATO break-in, steal and leak more data

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"Gay furry hackers"

"Telegram"

I wouldn't have thought that those two would really go together...

EFF urges Chrome users to get out of the Privacy Sandbox

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Re: Six of one and half a dozen of the other

The trouble is that Google is saying there are only two choices: third-party cookies or the privacy sandbox. And between them, the sandbox is better... slightly.

But what the EFF is saying, is that they've left out the choice of "not having targeted ads", which is superior to both by ages.

Amazon accused of being a monopolist in FTC lawsuit

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Re: Private Jets, that's the problem

So police should only ever go after small offenders, as going after major offenders is just going to "make a lot of noise" and "make things worse"?

Yes, other people do this. It's illegal, and should be stopped.

Amazon being a major player who does this makes this *more* important to stop, as it's committing the *actual, literal crime* at a massive scale. If people look at Amazon as normal, why should they not do the same thing? Commit the same crimes?

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Re: Private Jets, that's the problem

"Someone else is worse" is the argument of somebody who knows full well that the entity being discussed cannot be defended otherwise.

T-Mobile US exposes some customer data – but don't call it a breach

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Kids, here's the best advice you'll ever hear for avoiding cypto scams:

Don't buy crypto.

Australia to build six 'cyber shields' to defend its shores

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The minister's goal is that "just as you can't go into a car yard and buy a car that will not be safe to use, when you buy a digital product on sale in our country we know that it's safe for you to use";

I feel like this will be the hardest one of all - given that anything powerful quickly becomes unsafe.

China to set standards for the metaverse because it's not sure what one is

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I bet China wants to set Metaverse standards just so that people look to them as an authority, not because they seriously think it's going anywhere.

If anyone finds an $80M F-35 stealth fighter, please call the Pentagon

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Re: I could have understood not mentioning it if it was a Starfighter

People keep saying the F-35 is a failure, which is a bit weird, given that almost all the information on its performance is classified, so the only people able to make that call should be working at the Pentagon...

Google throws California $93M to make location tracking lawsuit disappear

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You mean like how phone services in America noticeably improved after the breakup of the AT&T monopoly?

Scientists trace tiny moonquakes to Apollo 17 lander – left over from 1972

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NASA uses the metric system internally, though?

That actually cost them a mission, as the part they commissioned from Lockheed-Martin measured force in pounds, rather than Newtons. https://everydayastronaut.com/mars-climate-orbiter/

Get ready to say hello to new Windows and goodbye to an old friend

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Re: They work?

The network troubleshooter's gotten me back online, like... twice. Out of hundreds of problems I've had, but still.

Google Chrome Privacy Sandbox open to all: Now websites can tap into your habits directly for ads

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Re: Sneaky

I believe Firefox now supports a somewhat locked-down version of the Web Serial API, now.

Microsoft: China stole secret key that unlocked US govt email from crash debug dump

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Re: "another issue it said has now been corrected"

Y'know, when most people ask for a corporate manage to fall on their sword, they mean figuratively...

Microsoft calls time on ancient TLS in Windows, breaking own stuff in the process

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Sadly, we live in a world where all sites NEED to be using HTTPS. https://doesmysiteneedhttps.com/

Brain-computer interface and AI helps stroke victim speak through avatar

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The patient in question could still move her facial muscles, so...

"Blink twice if that's mostly what you meant, blink three times if not, one long blink for 'It's complicated'".

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Here's one use of a brain interface I'm happy to see being researched - here's hoping they can get that error rate down further.

Get a $25 gift card if you help the US check whether these facial logins really work

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"Oh yeah, I'm sure actively helping the government implement facial recognition of all of its citizens will lead to only good things"

- nobody ever

I'd suggest some kind of WebAuthn alternative, but you can pass those from person to person, so no dice if you want to be sure the person before the keyboard *is* the relevant person. Mind, we have that problem with passwords now, and the world had not collapsed...

Microsoft DNS boo-boo breaks Hotmail for users around the globe

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I really, really hope you mean TSL certificates.

Moscow makes a mess on the Moon as Luna 25 probe misses orbit, lands with a thud

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Wonder what all those guys who were screaming about "Sanctions don't work! Russia is going to the moon!" think now?

Shifting to two-factor auth is hard to do. GitHub recommends the long game

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Re: Opt-Out

Let me tell you a story about an NPM package called 'left-pad'... https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/

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Re: Opt-Out

That's a little callous if a hundred people have dependencies on your code - then it starts looking like a juicy target for a supply-chain attack.

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Attackers do not need access to your phone to intercept your text messages. They just need a convincing story and a phone repair shop that isn't paying attention.

Google's next big idea for browser security looks like another freedom grab to some

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Re: Why this isn't needed. (A micro essay)

I agree with you in principle, but WebAuthn just means that the client has a public/private key pair. Chrome has an emulator for this built in for testing, someone making a fake browser can make fake WebAuthn accounts no problem. "Guaranteeing that the user is real" isn't WebAuthn's purpose - it's making sure it was the same user as last time.

Australian court orders Meta subsidiaries to pay $14 million over data use

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Re: Wot?

The worse part is that the court *could* have asked for billion dollar fines - the law allowed them to issue a million-dollar fine *per infraction*.

Guess who's quietly bankrolling a legal fight against Montana's TikTok ban. Why yes, it's TikTok

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Re: It doesn't matter where it is stored, it matters who has access to it

It's not that we have proof that they *are*, it's that we have proof that they *could* - the CCP has passed laws that given themselves those powers. That's apparently enough to make the US gov go *heck no*.

Re: Data in America not being safe, well no. That's why the EU are currently fighting with Google and Facebook in the courts about storing EU citizen data in the US, as they don't consider that secure for many of the same reasons as America is worried about data in China.

Chinese balloon that US shot down was 'crammed' with American hardware

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Re: Notice how....

Taking your hands off the steering wheel will do nothing to steady the course of the car.

The death of the sysadmin has been predicted for years – we're not holding our breath

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Re: Biased A.I models written by white men

That's not 'Woke', that's 'noticing that facial recognition doesn't seem to work as well for brown people' and 'noticing that voice recognition doesn't seem to work as well for people who don't have American accents'.

You know, observing reality.

Montenegro jails Do Kwon, accused of causing $40 billion LUNA crash

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I take it Montenegro doesn't have extradition treaties with the nations that want this guy?

Scientists think they may have cracked life support for Martian occupation

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Re: How about plants ?

In fairness to Andy Weir, they figured out that Mars's atmosphere is too thin for storms roughly about when the book was published (too late to rewrite the plot).

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